Parade of robots concludes summer workshop

By SUE WUETCHER

There were robots, all right, but one wore a pink heart. Another
took the popular Minecraft computer game as its inspiration, with
its creator decked out as a “Creeper.” Still
another featured a glowing, purple “Tower of Terror,” a
pink flower perched at the top.

Not an R2-D2 or C-3PO to be found.

And that was the point for the local elementary school children
who took part in ARTY, the Art, Robotics & Technology for Youth
workshop held last week at Canisius College.

The workshop, part of the community engagement program of
UB’s Techne Institute for Arts and Emerging Technologies, was
designed to provide an opportunity for children ages 9 to 12 to
learn about and experiment with robot art projects, while
discovering the possibilities of future careers in math,
engineering and computer science.

What could be cooler than spending part of your summer vacation
building your own special robot?

“By integrating the arts within a curriculum of basic
computer programming, experimentation, circuitry and design, the
workshop engaged many children and made robotics accessible to
those with diverse interests and talents,” says Sara
Bay-Cheng, UB professor of theatre and dance and director of the
Techne Institute.

The workshop was created and administered by Bay-Cheng, who
teaches digital media and performance at UB. Debra Burhans,
associate professor of computer science at Canisius, led the
workshop; participants were instructed in computer programming and
robot design by UB media study and electrical engineering students,
as well as computer science students at Canisius.

Guest artists also attended the sessions, held July 8-12 in the
Robotics Lab at Canisius, demonstrating the newest advances in
robot technology to help the students imagine the possibilities for
their own future creations, including their final project. For that
final projects, students had to create and program a unique working
robot, and design a performance and presentation.

The workshop concluded on July 12 with a “Parade of
Robots” representing workshop participants’ final
projects.

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